Kingswood Park in Minnetrista receives its official name

Camp Kingswood, the newest addition to the Three Rivers Park system, will be called Kingswood Park.

Park commissioners supported the idea at a meeting last week after determining that the property's interim name — "Kingswood Special Recreation Feature" — was confusing to the public.

The district purchased the 106-acre camp in Minnetrista last year for $2.25 million from the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. It was a summer Bible camp for 65 years that the church could no longer afford.

Park District officials determined that "Kingswood" had no biblical implications, and that the name came from the Kingswood forest region in England, whose forest product sales were used to establish schools for coal miners' children in the 1700s.